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You may have heard that acquiring a new customer can cost up to
five times more than keeping the customers you already have. Yet
poor
customer service continues to irritate many consumers.

More than half of U.S. consumers (55 percent) polled for the
2012 American Express Global Customer Service
Barometer (PDF) say they’ve turned their backs on
at least one potential purchase in the past year as a result
of what they saw as poor service. And while only 17 percent of
those surveyed say they’ve used social media to seek a
resolution to their customer service query, this savvy group
carries a lot of weight in how companies should respond.

Why? A whopping 83 percent of consumers who use social media to
try to resolve a service or support issue have bowed out of a
purchase when they have a bad service.

What’s more, social media users say they spend 21 percent more
with companies that provide great service. And these particular
users say they’re far more likely to tell others about their
experience.

For example, consumers who use social media for customer service
will tell an average of 42 others about a good experience -- and
tell an average of 53 people about a bad customer-service
experience. The general population, in contrast, will tell 15
people about a good experience and 24 about a negative one.

Zack Urlocker, chief operating officer of Zendesk, the help-desk software behind
Zappos, says the rise of social media means customers expect
authentic, truthful and open communication and won’t be fooled
by excuses, runarounds and insincerity.

“Businesses need to develop a proactive customer-engagement
strategy that seamlessly integrates social media, in order to
temper the likelihood of something spinning out of control.” He
said the way to do that is to make sure you talk to your
customers through their preferred communication vehicle, such as
Twitter or Facebook.